Hearing Voices
by sufferingpostpotterdepression
Summary: Psychologists say hearing voices is just your subconscious trying to make itself heard. It's not normal, but it's not a basilisk either. Where are the voices in Harry's head coming from?
1. Introduction 1

When Lily Potter first fell pregnant, her husband had doubts. Not the normal doubts which you may expect from a husband, and now a father to be. He did not doubt that the baby was his child. He did not worry that he and his wife were not ready to have children. No, he had much more sinister doubts.

However, what James potter was concerned about had no way of showing itself until long after the baby was born, in fact, if the books were correct, the condition would not begin to manifest itself until the child hit it's early teenage years. And anyway, by then, the child would have been taught self-control, much like James himself had been taught, when he was a young boy.

So, life went on, Lily's pregnancy continued, and everything returned to normal in Godric's Hollow. Well, as normal as can be expected, when your wife is pregnant for the first time. Then, they were called to an urgent meeting with Albus Dumbledore.

Albus Dumbledore, full name Albus Percival Wilfric Brian Dumbledore, was the Headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but he was also the self-nominated leader of a highly secret organisation, know, to the few who knew of it, as The Order Of The Phoenix. They existed to fight in the wizarding war against the Dark Lord, Lord Voldemort, although most referred to him as You-Know-Who.

He gave them a grave message. Lord Voldemort had discovered a prophecy predicting the one who would be able to destroy him once and for all, and he believed that that person was the unborn son of James and Lily Potter.

Immediately, wards went up around Godrics Hollow, and the house itself. The Potters were on house arrest, and had at least one watch at all times. When the time came for the baby to be born, healers were called to the house, the couple did not make the journey to Saint Mungo's Hospital. Then, the baby had a constant watch too. It was never left with someone further than a few metres away. And slowly, but surely, every one of the members of the Order of The Phoenix, grew to love Harry Potter.

On Halloween night, when harry was a year old, the Potters had only one man on watch, James' best friend, Sirius Black. It was a solemn occasion, and in the end James, using all of his charm and willpower, practically begged the other man to go to Peter's and enjoy his Halloween.

The two adults sat together on their comfy old sofa, in their cottage, and waited. They curled into each other, and held their slumbering infant between them. They expected the worst, and it arrived. They heard the gate of their walled garden creak open, and they shared their last kiss. They heard the door crash open, and James chanced a look, confirming both of their fears. He sent Lily upstairs with Harry, declaring he would hold Lord Voldermort off, and knowing fully well that he would not be able to.

By the time the sun rose the next morning, three of the people who had been in that house were dead, and the other was gone. Voldemort had slaughtered the mother and the father in a quest to get to the child. But when he forced his wand upon the child, it was not the boy, but the man who died, leaving the planet in peace.

Lord Voldemort had left for good, but there were many who thought that he would return one day, and that is how the young Harry Potter came to be living with his muggle relatives, his aunt and her family. Dumbledore wanted him hidden, and where could be better?

The couple who he was thrust upon had been trying to have a child for a long time, but had been completely unsuccessful, so little Harry Potter came to be both loved and resented in the Dursley household.

He was spoilt, like any other only child, but he did not care for the material items thrust into his possession. In fact, he stashed them all in the larger of the two bedrooms available to him to choose from, and took the second one for himself. He kept the room bare, despite his uncle and aunt's protests. It contained only a small single bed, with and old, slightly worn sheet and duvet cover, a desk, where he did his homework, and a wardrobe, which contained, out of the clothes he was bought and given, the few pieces he was able to stand wearing, most of which were oversized and faded from overuse.

To some, this sort of behaviour may indicate an ungrateful child, and to some extent, that could be said to be true. However, this was not completely the case.

Harry Potter did not appreciate these material gifts for one reason. He wanted their love, not their money. He knew, as he was growing up, that he was spoilt and doted on. All the children from school always wanted to come to his house, because he always had the best junk food, the best computer games and generally the best of anything that a primary school child could want. And yet, it was obvious that he was being treated this way for all the wrong reasons. The Dursleys loved the concept of having a son to spoil, they did not love him, and the children at school, they loved his house and the objects inside it, but none of them loved him. Of course, that could be because he pushed them all away. He rejected all of their invitations, whether it was to sit with them at lunch or go to their birthday party, he still said no. No-one ever came to his house more than once, however much they begged. And when they were too persistent, things had a habit of _happening_. Suddenly, they would develop an inability to speak, or they would become irrationally scared of Harry. Either way, they would no longer be able to invite themselves to his house.

It was these _things_ which really marked Harry as extraordinary, although he did not find out why until his eleventh birthday. On this day, a man arrived at the house where Harry lived with his aunt and uncle. He had neat brown hair, scars across his face, and must have been around the same age as Mr. and Mrs. Dursley. He introduced himself to be Remus Lupin, a friend of Harry's real parents, and a teacher at the school which Harry's name had been down for since he was born.

To Harry, this sounded like he was off to some posh public school, and he could not think of anything which he would enjoy less. Surely all the people there would be just like his Uncle and Aunt, constantly trying to impress with material items.

However, Professor Lupin went on to tell Harry that this was no ordinary school; it was, in fact, a school for young witches and wizards.

Harry left for the school, which he learnt was called Hogwarts, on the first of September, from the train at platform nine and three quarters. His aunt and uncle took him to the station in their brand new car, eager to show it off. They accompanied him through the barrier and to the station platform. Aunt Petunia insisted on holding Harry's hand the entire time, while Uncle Vernon pushed Harry's trolley, ignoring the strange looks that he was receiving because of it.

Because, you see, on the trolley was not a suitcase and a pet carry case. No, on the trolley was a large trunk, and a bright white snowy owl in the cage, both needed for Harry's wizarding education, and both presents from Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, determined not to let him have anything but the best.

They pushed past a large family of redheads carrying shabby trunks and suitcases between them, and Harry was escorted right up to the door of the train compartment. He was given kisses on the cheek and wishes of good luck, which he accepted unemotionally. And then he was on the train, and his trunk and owl were on the train, and he was leaving the Durley's for the first time in his eleven years of life.


	2. Chapter 1

Harry quickly met all sorts of people on board the train, which was called the Hogwarts Express. As he was struggling to put his trunk on one of the high racks, one of the older children from the redheaded family he had passed earlier, came and helped him, and said hello. Then he met that boy's twin, and learnt that they were called Fred and George Weasley. When they left, he turned to leave the luggage area of the train, and found a boy, who appeared to be about his age leaning against the other wall, and staring, impressed, at Harry's expensive trunk, whilst holding an identical one. The boy nodded at Harry, who smiled nervously back. He would have said hello, but someone else came in who clearly knew the pale, blonde boy, and put his trunk on the rack for him. Harry, felt he was intruding, and tried to slip past the blonde through the door, but the blond called him back, and the other, older, boy left.

"You're Harry Potter, aren't you?" the boy said, sharply, and with the air of someone who already knows that he is right.

Harry nodded again.

"I'm Draco Malfoy" he said, stressing his last name as if it should mean something to Harry, but it didn't, and this must have shown on Harry's face, because the boy went on to say, 'Father,' he began, stressing the word again, 'said they sent you to live with muggles? Is that true? Because you really _are _clueless aren't you?' This came across as rather condescending, and the blond boy, clearly eager to be Harry's friend, quickly tried to rectify his mistake 'But I can help you there." He said, and smiled sticking out his hand.

The only time Harry had ever seen anyone do this was when his Uncle Vernon had had men from his work, at the house. So, not quite knowing what to do, or how to refuse a handshake even if he wanted to, Harry shook the other boy's hand.

And that was the start of a friendship which, in the public eye, would be very brief, and for the two boys involved, would last forever.

Draco took Harry to a mostly full compartment, and introduced him to the others sitting there. Harry met Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe, who he thought looked absolutely terrifying, Theodore Nott and Blaise Zabini, who sneered at him, and Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bullstrode, who seemed overly interested in him.

Crabbe and Goyle, this being what everyone seemed to call them, moved aside to make room for Harry to sit down, although they were easily each twice the size of everyone else in the compartment, and so Harry was confused as to why it was those two who were made to squeeze themselves into the smaller space, when any two of the other occupants could have moved and still remained in comfort.

Draco moved aside a robe which had been folded and placed on a seat, and took that seat for himself, paying no attention to Pansy's shrieks about how he was creasing her robe, and it was designer, and she had _just_ been telling 'Millie' how much it had cost! He tossed her the robe, earning more shrieks, and turned to Harry, who was seated opposite him.

"So, Potter, what house do you think you'll be in?" Draco asked, and, again, Harry had no idea what he was talking about.

"House?" Harry asked in return, and suddenly the two boys sitting on Draco's right, Zabini and Nott, Harry remembered, sniggered.

They were about to comment on Harry's lack of wizarding knowledge, but the compartment door slid open, and a girl was standing there. She was easily smaller than any of them, even Pansy, but she had an untamed mane of brown curly hair, which made her seem almost as tall as Blaise, although nowhere near as tall as Crabbe or Goyle.

'Excuse me,' she said, 'but has anyone seen a toad? A boy called Neville's looking for one?' Despite her confidence, the girl looked pretty scared, in Harry's opinion, so he quickly offered to help her.

'No, sorry, but I'll help you look if you want?' he replied, but then he looked back at Draco, worried that his new friend thought he was abandoning him. Draco had his eyebrows raised and looked as though he could not believe that _Harry Potter_ was actually offering to go and help some girl, clearly muggleborn from her clothes, look for a _toad_!

So Harry quickly went with the girl, as Draco had not yet protested, and as he left the compartment, Draco heard him say, 'I'm Harry, by the way who are you?'

Harry learnt that the girl was called Hermione Granger, and she rattled off the appearance of 'Hermione' in literature, although Harry never did learn whether she was named after Shakespeare's Hermione or the Hermione of Greek Mythology. He also learned that, like him, she had had a privileged but non-magical upbringing, as her parents were dentists, although Harry thought they sounded much nicer than the dentist which Uncle Vernon frogmarched him to once every six months. However, unlike him, neither of Hermione's parents could do magic. Despite this, Hermione seemed to have memorised all the set textbooks, as well as several others, as she quickly informed Harry that the _correct _term for someone like her was a 'muggleborn' and that a 'muggle' was a non-magical person.

He learnt all this, plus much more besides, as they walked down the train, looking for the toad, which was apparently called Trevor, although Harry personally thought that this was a strange name for a toad. It was only on the way back when Hermione asked about the people with whom Harry had been sitting when she arrived.

He told her that the blonde by was Draco Malfoy, and Hermione gasped, the name clearly meaning more to her than it had meant to him. Then, Hermione started rattling off quotes from 'A Recent History of Wizarding Britain and France', which seemed to be both relevant and important, but really meant nothing to Harry. They stuck their heads into a few other compartments on the way back down the train, asking the other students if they had seen Trevor the Toad. They avoided most of the compartments that seemed to only have seventh years in them, and they avoided the teacher's compartment. However, one of the compartments which they did enter contained most of the redheaded family who Harry had met earlier.

They asked the boys in the compartment, four in total; although one made a point of saying that he was a prefect and would actually be spending most of the train journey in the prefect's carriage. After he left, and only three of the redheaded boys were left, they had a short conversation, but, in Harry's opinion, the youngest of the three, seemed overly excited about meeting Harry Potter, and was rude about Draco and to Hermione, when Harry brought them up as friends he had already made. However, despite the rude remark, Hermione seemed rather cheered up by the fact _Harry Potter_ considered her to be his friend!

They also popped into a compartment with only one boy in it, who Hermione claimed to be Neville, the boy whose toad they had been looking for. Unfortunately, they had to tell him that they could not find the toad, and the slightly chubby boy burst into a bout of sobs. Hermione quickly declared that she would stay with Neville, but that Harry should really go back to Draco and the others before the end of the journey, and it would be rude of him to not go. And so Harry went, but arranged to meet Hermione again on the platform when they arrived.

Harry had headed back to the platform via the luggage carriage, and had changed into his school robes while he was in there.

When he arrived back, all the others were also in their robes, and he noticed that they all had the more expensive robes, out of those which were both available and allowed, unlike many of the others who he had seen on the train.

Harry sat back down with the others, and joined in their talk of racing brooms, which Harry didn't know that much about, although he had seen a Nimbus 2000 in a shop window when he had been buying his school supplies, and that seemed to be all anyone was talking about anyway. Luckily, the conversation did not stray from that subject until the end of the journey, and so Harry did not have to reveal that he had absolutely no idea what quidditch was.


	3. Chapter 2

As promised, Harry met up with Hermione as soon as they reached the platform, and they, along with Draco, Blaise, Theo, Pansy, Gregory, Vincent, Millicent, Ron, Neville and all the other first years, were shepherded in the opposite direction to everyone else, who Draco seemed to dislike immediately, but who Harry and Hermione thought seemed both friendly and fascinating.

When he pushed them towards tiny boats, and told them to get in, no more than four to a boat, Draco strode to the nearest one, gesturing to Blaise, Harry and Theo to get in with him, obeying Hagrid's (for that was the name of the huge man who was now seated in his own boat) rule of 'No more than four to a boat.' Harry cast an apologetic look to Hermione, but saw that she was in a boat with Neville, and two other people who Harry did not know.

When the other boys caught him looking, they sneered, and gave Harry the impression that they didn't like Hermione, even though they had never spoken to her. Draco, however, was still trying to stay on Harry Potter's list of friends, just as his father had told him to, and so did not sneer, and distracted the other three boys with the resumption of their earlier conversation about Hogwarts houses.

This puzzled Harry, as earlier it seemed that the boys all firmly knew that they were going to be in 'Slytherin', something which Harry had got Hermione to explain to him whilst on their toad hunt. Honestly, the two of them had come to the conclusion that Slytherin was probably the worst of the four houses (Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin), and that they'd rather be in Gryffindor, or maybe Ravenclaw, but from the way the other boys talked about Slytherin, he could now see some of it's better points.

Eventually, the boats, which seemed to move on their own, reached a kind of harbour, in a cave beneath the castle. The first years clambered unsteadily out, and followed Hagrid up the uneven and slimy stone steps. They had grouped together in bunches, which meant that a rather large group at the back was made up of Draco and all his aspiring Slytherin friends, Harry, Hermione, and Neville, who seemed to have latched himself onto Hermione. The students who Hermione had been in a boat with had huddled together with some other equally nervous looking students. Ron, meanwhile, seemed to belong to no group, and as they reached the castle, started declaring that his brothers, he had five, had told him that they would all have to fight a troll in front of the whole school in order to be sorted!

Briefly, Harry was worried. But then Draco started mumbling comments about Ron being a 'moron blood traitor' and although the second part didn't make sense to Harry, the first part made him laugh, and made him considerably less worried.

When they reached the castle, all the first years were all ushered into a small-ish hall, where they had a brief encounter with some ghosts whilst they waited. Strangely, Neville seemed to be the most phased by the appearance of ghosts, even though he had wizarding parents and had grown up around both magic and stories of Hogwarts. However, he shrieked, causing a slight panic in some of the other students, and meaning that Professor McGonagall, who was the teacher they had been waiting for, arrived in the middle of a complete commotion.

"Can I have your attention please?" she asked, her accent thick and cutting through the conversations of the students. She proceeded to explain what would happen when they entered the Great Hall, and Harry was relieved to learn that he only had to try on a hat; he did not have to fight a troll. He did, however, begin to wonder how that would put him in a house, and especially how it would put him in the _right_ house.

His worries were not solved when they were in the Hall, and the first student, one of the blonde's from Hermione's boat, went to try on the hat first. All that seemed to happen was the hat went on, the hat shouted a house, and the hat came off.

The first person Harry knew who was sorted was Millicent, and the hat was fairly quick to place her in Slytherin. In fact it was very quick to place Draco, and all his friends in Slytherin, although it was particularly fast with Draco. The hat didn't even seem to have touched his head when he called out the house name.

Harry thought it was a shame because he wouldn't be able to be with Draco in a house, not if he had any say in it, anyway. However his spirit was lifted slightly by Hermione and Neville being placed in Gryffindor, as that was the house Harry most wanted to be in.

When Harry's name was called, the whole hall fell completely silent, and then everyone started whispering furiously. He lost the confidence which he had summoned, and half walked, half shuffled, to the hat, on a wobbly-looking three legged stool. He could see Hermione on one side of the hall, and Draco on the other, and so he closed his eyes.

The hat settled on his head, but did not call anything out. Instead, after a while, Harry could hear the voice of the hat inside his own head. A debate ensued. The hat could not decide, Slytherin or Gryffindor? He could see that Harry was torn as well, but the more the hat insisted that he could be great in Slytherin, the more he wanted to be in Gryffindor.

Eventually, the battered hat flopped a little, as though sighing in defeat, and called out 'GRYFFINDOR'.

The hall erupted, although the sound was mostly coming from the Gryffindor table, although the teachers and prefects were clapping as well, as they had for every student once they were sorted. Harry shuffled over to the deafening group, and squeezed onto the bench opposite Hermione, deliberately facing away from the Slytherin table. He presumed this meant he and Draco were no longer friends.


End file.
